Discussion (28) ¬

Even if she’s been hiding out, Plo Quar has surely seen the news by now, and must know that her services would be of use — but I’m not clear on whether her status among the refugees is “freedom fighter” or “war criminal”.

given the current situation i´d say every echo is more then welcome…but the big question is, where *is* plo quar? the way she said her good byes to selkie implied she never meant to stay away for long, yet its been years – years in which no one seems to have seen her. if the sar´teri had captured and/or killed her, they would´ve broadcasted this ‘success’…..i´m honestly stumped here. the only thing i can think of that would make sense would be if she´d lost her memory, and is now a random refugee

no wonder most people, me included, missed that, she is tiny and all the way in the back ground……so she´s been in the human world this whole time? there´s got to be a VERY GOOD reason for it. i wonder if brown+co know this – or if she´s following her own plans, whatever they may be

… And that’s possibly Gien’s long game, here. No matter how quickly Selkie learns and masters her skills, she’s still at least another eight years away from being of much use… But if he gets himself some kind of leverage on Selkie, he might be able to use it to bring Plo Quar out of hiding and put /her/ to work…

I can’t imagine Todd would go against what Selkie would want – IF he and his family deemed it safe. But Selkie’s mother *didn’t* come and claim her even though she’s been in the area. So maybe she doesn’t feel like Selkie would be safe/well-cared-for with her?

Legally, Plo Quar would have to sue for custody and prove she’s as fit a parent as Todd is. Which would be quite a big order- war criminal/possibly homeless refugee vs stable job holding citizen that provides well for his daughters. In a human court, that’s a hard sell on Plo Quar’s part, assuming they’d even give her a shot in court. I think Todd would have no problems with visitations but he’d fight tooth and nail for her if he had to.

Since she herself gave up Selkie, wouldn’t that waiver any rights she might have had? And once Todd adopted her that’s final, he’s now the legal father and there’s nothing anyone can do about that anymore.

not any more final than Amanda and Andi was. yes, Plo Quar would have to go to court for sure, and like Vixandra said, it would be a hard fight to get her back EVEN with the US Court system ‘currently’ being biased against single dad’s keeping custody of the kids in a divorce case, even if he has a job and the kids WANT to stay with him, vs. dead-beat mom that they DON’T want to stay with… the courts STILL send the kids with the MOM… (personal experience: one of my friends had this happen to him in his divorce case)

Because Amanda was still in the orphanage, if she had already been adopted Andi would have been out of luck.

Interestingly googling told me Todd might have had a case in that case as he technically never abolished his parental rights. Which opens the possibility that while Plo can’t reclaim Selkie, Scar might.

Is it just me, or does Scar look GUILTY in panel 5? does he know where she is and hasn’t told anyone yet? or is she still on the lam from the authorities? has he been HIDING her? in the one strip we saw her in the background of, she sure as heck didn’t LOOK like she was in hiding, or even had a care in the world, and to be honest, it really does “look” like she “dumped” Selkie and forgot about her (like Selkie was afraid of)… we’ll see later on in the comic i hope…

Gonna call it here, Plo Quar is suffering PTSD and probably left Selkie with humans specifically because she did not want her child’s whole life to be about how she could be a useful tool to other people. Like am I the only one who find its pretty disgusting the attitude of shirking her duties? Like what entitles you to her abilities? the argument of ‘for the greater good’ doesn’t hold water when you use it to turn someone into an unwilling indentured servant.

i agree with your PTSD assessment and possible reasons for her leaving Selkie at the Orphanage… that said, i respectfully disagree with your reasoning behind the “shirking of duties” comment… IF Gien had said that, oh yeah, for sure, in a heart-beat i’d agree with you because he does NOT have the powers of an Echo. BUT, because it’s being said BY Pohl (or even if Scar had said it) as one of those self same Echo’s, then it becomes more of a grey area… THEY DO have the same powers, and they DO have their expected societal “Duties” and they ARE performing them… However, Plo Quar is NOT doing them, therefore they are having to take up her work-load in addition to their own… for a semi-example (humans don’t have magical powers, so it can’t be exact) take any job that takes some sort of highly technical or advanced training or whatever, say, like an Architect that designs skyscrapers, etc, or Professional Athlete… ie, some job that not just any joe-schmoe can attempt, let alone do successfully if NOT trained and you have 3 of these people, but you ALSO have another person, EQUALLY trained and equal in practical experience (nothing implying any discrimination there), hired by the same company etc… but that person doesn’t do squat… not only do you have to do your own work, you also have to do the work that is expected of her as well… don’t you think you would get a bit pissed off if that were to happen to YOU?

you may not agree with what those “expectations” ARE, and think that that makes Echo’s into slaves, but remember: you are a HUMAN, not a Sarnothi… it’s like comparing apples to oranges… no matter how you twist it, they aren’t the same, therefore you cannot expect the same results for a given situation.

The equivalent I see to this event is forcing people who possess universal dinner blood to donate blood against there will, yes a mandatory collection of the blood would save thousands but you are still forcing the use of something someone was born with, something they never had a choice in.

Gonna leave the (admittedly enjoyable) story and plot discussion to everyone else. I just wanted to comment that the first panel brings to mind the quote “It’s not a question of where he grips it, It’s a simple matter of weight – ratios.” Annnnnd now I have Monty Python on the brain, so that’s good at least!